Transportation Air Quality Facts and Figures January 2006

Vehicle Emissions

Sources of Vehicle Emissions

The power to move a motor vehicle comes from burning fuel in an engine. Emissions from vehicles are the by-products of this combustion process. In addition, VOC escape through fuel evaporation. As vehicle exhaust systems have improved, evaporative emissions have become a larger component of total-vehicle VOC emissions.

Exhaust Emissions

The combustion process results in emissions of VOC, NOx, PM, and CO, which are released from the tailpipe while a vehicle is operating. Exhaust emissions occur during two modes:

Cold Start Emissions - starting a vehicle and the first few minutes of driving generate higher emissions because the emissions-control equipment has not yet reached its optimal operating temperature.

Running Emissions - pollutants are emitted from the vehicle's tailpipe during driving and idling after the vehicle is warmed up.

Evaporative Emissions

VOC also escape into the air through fuel evaporation. Despite evaporative emissions controls, evaporative losses can still account, on hot days, for a majority of the total VOC pollution from current model cars. Evaporative emissions occur in several ways:

Running Losses - the hot engine and exhaust system can vaporize gasoline while the vehicle is running.

Hot Soak (cooling down) - the engine remains hot for a period of time after the vehicle is turned off, and gasoline evaporates when the car is parked while cooling down.

Diurnal (while parked and engine is cool) - even when the vehicle is parked for long periods of time, gasoline evaporation occurs as the temperature rises during the day.

Refueling - gasoline vapors escape from the vehicle's fuel tank while the tank is being filled.

Trip Emissions

Average Emissions of a Typical Car on the Road in 2002

Starting a car cold increases trip emissions compared to starting an engine that is already warm. A typical automobile on the road in 2002 had an average trip length of 4.0 miles, and, with slightly more than 7 trips per day, an average of about 29 vehicle miles traveled per day. On a given weekday, cold starts of a typical vehicle produces 7.7 grams of VOC (25 percent of the typical daily emissions), 88 grams of CO (26 percent of the typical daily emissions), and 5 grams of NOx (19 percent of the typical daily emissions). Running exhaust accounts for another 7.8 grams of VOC, 251 grams of CO, and 20.2 grams of NOx.

VOC are also emitted through fuel evaporation. For example, parking the car all day produces 4.3 grams of VOC.

These curves do not represent the full range of effects associated with travel at different speeds. Emissions rates are higher during stop-and-go, congested traffic conditions than free flow conditions operating at the same average speed.

Gross Emitters

A small percentage of vehicles emit a large percentage of the pollution from on-road vehicles. These "gross emitters" include not only older model cars, but also some new cars with poorly maintained or malfunctioning emissions control equipment. As shown in the diagram, it is estimated that less than 10 percent of the vehicle fleet emits approximately 50 percent of the VOC emissions. The same vehicles, however, are not always gross emitters for all criteria pollutants - different 10 percent may be gross emitters for CO, NOx , and others. Additionally, 10 percent to 27 percent of the vehicles failing inspection never end up passing the state inspection and maintenance tests.